Bath joined Leicester and Llanelli Scarlets in the Powergen Cup semi-finals after England's Olly Barkley masterminded their victory at a rainswept Recreation Ground.

Barkley, a strong contender for the England number 12 shirt against Six Nations champions Wales on February 4, produced an outstanding 40-minute performance before injury forced him off.

His 13-point haul included an exquisite try as Gloucester suffered a second defeat in seven weeks on Bath soil.

Barkley and company now go through to the Millennium Stadium knockout phase in early March after producing arguably their most inventive display of the season.

Barkley and wing Joe Maddock touched down during a one-sided opening 30 minutes, and although Gloucester fly-half Ludovic Mercier kicked four penalties, Gloucester never seriously threatened to record a rare league or cup win against their west country rivals away from home.

Bath lost much of their creativity after Barkley departed, yet they did enough to march on, despite scoring only three second-half points through a late Chris Malone penalty.

Bath welcomed back their sizeable contingent of England players from autumn Test duty, with Barkley, Lee Mears, Matt Stevens, Steve Borthwick and Danny Grewcock all included in a starting line-up under the temporary control of Australians Michael Foley and Richard Graham until Brian Ashton takes up his head coach's appointment on January 1.

Gloucester though, were minus injured pair James Simpson-Daniel and Alex Brown, but England centre Mike Tindall featured against his former club.

Mercier and Barkley exchanged early penalties, but Gloucester were temporarily reduced to 14 men after just seven minutes when full-back Olly Morgan was sin-binned following a reckless lunge on his opposite number Matt Perry.

Morgan took Perry out in mid-air after the Bath player collected a high ball, and referee Nigel Whitehouse had no hesitation brandishing a yellow card.

Bath couldn't make their advantage count while Morgan was off, but barely 60 seconds after he returned, they opened Gloucester up with a superbly-executed try.

Bath's options appeared restricted from static scrum ball 25 metres out, but Malone placed a kick to perfection over Gloucester's defence and Barkley gathered the bounce at pace for a try that he also converted.

It was impressive work by the home side, and they caused further havoc just seven minutes later as Gloucester were again undone by kick and chase opportunism.

Bath, who haven't scored a try at home in the Guinness Premiership all season, this time relied on scrum-half Nick Walshe for the assist, chipping cleverly into Gloucester's 22 and speedster Maddock dived over wide out.

Barkley drifted the touchline conversion attempt wide, but Bath had made an emphatic statement of intent with two touchdowns in quick succession, and even though Mercier slotted his second penalty, Gloucester remained on the back-foot.

Barkley and Mercier added further penalties before the break, yet Bath were firmly in control at 18-9 ahead, dominating through their forwards and looking a far more threatening unit behind the scrum.

Bath suffered an injury setback when Barkley failed to reappear for the second period, and Malone immediately missed an easy chance to extend the home side's lead when he sliced a short-range penalty attempt.

Mercier was also wide, albeit from a much longer distance, and as the rain fell, both sides struggled for continuity in increasingly difficult conditions.

Bath lost centre Alex Crockett to the sin-bin for stamping at a ruck, and with Barkley off, they lost their impressive early momentum as Mercier made further inroads by slotting a fourth penalty.

Bath's first-half sparkle was extinguished by the downpour, and with Gloucester's forwards competing far more vigorously, Mercier kicked them into a threatening position just five metres from the home line.

It was the cue for Gloucester boss Dean Ryan to send on England back-row forward James Forrester, and Bath found themselves in defence mode after spending so much of the match attacking and building territory.

Gloucester though, couldn't prosper from their forward platform, and Malone's 80th-minute penalty sent them back up the M5 with an all too familiar sinking feeling.